dellhiver
@dellhiver@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Developers Were Left in the Dark About DLSS 5 1 week ago:
There was an interesting post that I was linked to on Reddit, supposedly from Assassins Creed dev.
I’ll quote it here:
“I been watching the fallout of the DLSS 5 video, and wanted to check in with with some game devs to check if I have been taking crazy pills, or if I have understood game dev incorrectly.
Games are not visuals, they are game mechanics and game loops skinned in visual interface. When we make games, we make all the things that work with our mechanism and loops, visually distinct and more importantly repeatable.
In assassins creed, all ledges that I can climb, look visually distinct from all other ledges. In most games, outlines and color is much more important, than what they look up close. They are used to identify what we are looking at, more than how realistic they look. These things are icons in the world, more than they are objects.
Light and Shadow are not just for visual pleasure, they are used to draw the eye towards objectives and where you should go.
In short, there is information in the visual representation of the game mechanics that are telling players what they should do and where they should go.
When I see video games processed through DLSS 5, I see stripped away game information, making games less playable, and more confusing. I could understand having this in a photo mode, but why on earth should we have this in any of our games, if we don’t know what it will change it to? Or if it even will remain consistent next time you look at it?
Will it remove the yellow paint on my assassins creed ledges, or perhaps only up-rez the rest of the assets, and make the yellow ledges stand out like a sore eye? Will it remove scars that are story relevant from an RPG Character? Will it smooth out a wall that is supposed to look like it can be destroyed? There are so many visual important things in games, that I know this thing won’t adhere to.
Did no one involved in making this video understand Game Design or Art Design?”
- Comment on Fixed it. 2 weeks ago:
Was watching the Digital Foundry review of this tech. They seemed impressed, the people in the comments were scathing
Everyday I think things can’t get worse. That maybe this will be the breaking point. But no.
The main Resident Evil example is just awful. It’s like an Instagram filter.
It’s worse than that guy who has been going around photoshopping “Ugly” female game characters to make them look hotter.
I hate this reality.
- Comment on Anon is a scientist 3 weeks ago:
From what I’ve learnt, it’s grapes (raisins, sultanas etc) that you should be worried about feeding to your dogs.
They are very toxic and tend to do permanent damage even in small amounts, particularly to the kidneys.
- Comment on The UK paid £4.1 million for a bookmarks site 1 month ago:
This is just one product/service that PwC has provided to the UK Government, there have been countless more. It’s a drop in the ocean of wasted money.
But the Government isn’t being hoodwinked. It’s by design. Ministers need big departments and big budgets to boost their profile. PwC massively overcharge, so ministers can have their big budgets.
It’s win win. Only people that lose, are the tax payers.
PwC almost always subcontract, who then subcontract again. The people who actually did this work probably got 45k.
Subcontractors like companies like PwC, because they have access to Governments and multinationals and win contracts that boost the subcontracters’ profile.
How do I know? I worked at a subcontracting consultancy.
It’s not just PwC. It’s all the big Accounting Firms. It’s Capita etc.
- Comment on PC game recommendation for my partner and I 2 months ago:
Agree with It Takes Two.
The platforming can be frustrating in parts, but as she’s played Mario and donkey kong, then it should be fine.
I mean the other obvious option are the various Lego games.
Lego Harry Potter etc.
- Comment on Save us!!! 4 months ago:
True. All I can think of is that before it gets to Halloween shops have sold off most of their stock and are in the process of getting all the Xmas stuff out. I’ve been places where they have a Halloween and Xmas mix of songs.
I’m not ruling out that a few hundred thousand completely random people around the world all decide to listen to Xmas music around the same time. I just think it’s more likely businesses switching to seasonal music as early as possible, and streaming Mariah Carey 20 times a day, causing the big sudden spike.
- Comment on Save us!!! 4 months ago:
Is it just a load of stores/shops immediately switching to generic xmas playlists after Halloween? To me that’s the only reason I could see there to being a sudden spike. This song is bound to be in most of them. But we’d also need to track other popular xmas tracks.
(I know there used to be significant music licensing issues about what music could be played in a store, to the public. Don’t know if there is some special Spotify business account now?)
- Comment on Wild Seals 5 months ago:
Obligatory link - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_finger
Don’t let a Seal bite you.
“Seal finger was first described scientifically in 1907. It can cause cellulitis, joint inflammation, and swelling of the bone marrow; untreated, the course of “seal finger” is slow and often results in a thickened, contracted joint. Historically, seal finger was treated by amputation of the affected digits once they became unusable…”
- Comment on These are your only alternatives. 5 months ago:
1 - 100% chance of a metallic taste, that lingers after use. 3 as well probably.
4 is the only practical option, just need to use it with your left hand.
- Comment on And they mocked me for my WoW subscription 😗 5 months ago:
I did return to my old flac and mp3 collection. Got Foobar working again, found a nice skin and I’m rediscovering music that I that skipped over. I buy second-hand CDs when I find them. I’ve managed to get a digital copy of all my favourite albums and tracks.
I will keep Spotify though. A long time ago, I got friends to share their Discovery and Release Radar playlists. With my own, I have a nice spread of recommendations.
I need regular new music. Call it a search for unexpected dopamine. Spotify still picks new tracks that I really like. I also like Spotify Connect and the easily shared collaborative playlists.
The UK has less alternatives for music discovery. I don’t like Radio, way too much talking and ads.
I’ve got rid of Netflix, Prime. I’m getting Disney+ for free at the moment. Back to physical for film and TV.
For now, Spotify recommendations is worth the cost of entry.
- Comment on How can England possibly be running out of water? 7 months ago:
If you read the Government doc linked near the top of the Guardian article, you find this little gem:
“A further one billion litres a day will also be needed to generate energy, grow our food, and power emerging technologies.”
Basically things will be worse because a load of water is going to be consumed by AI data centers.